It Would be Rude Not to !

Tuesday 12th October 2010

I set off from the Rosemarkie, and the Black Isle before 9-30 a.m. and headed straight to the 'Internet ‘hot spot’ in Inverness to update everyone on my plans…so by half twelve I was ready to set off again, my intentions being to go West and hit the mountains…

I decided to go a differing way ,and so went on the road to Lairg, via Bonar Bridge ,happily going over the Cromarty Firth,Muir of Ord and top end of the Dornoch Firth/estuary…however as I reached Ardgay, I saw signs for a Bike trail off to the left …hmm, I thought wonder which that one is, and so, consulting my book found that I was near to Carbisdale Forest, with it’s very isolated bike trails, well, what should I do ? Continue to the mountains, or do more bike trails – the bike trails won !(Well,it would be rude not to !)

I turned off the road, and went along a small narrow road for 4 miles, ending up at Culrain,(where there was a battle in 1650 !), and parked in Carbisdale Forest, just down the road from Carbisdale Youth Hostel , which as you can see is more like a castle – apparently the ‘most splendid’ in Britain ! (and no, I didn’t sample it – I’m only a pensioner!)

I firstly set off on a quite reasonable ‘blue’ graded trail, and soon polished that one off, so returned to the trails to do the higher graded ‘Red’ trail – again good fun, with big Rocks - which had painted arrows over the rocks showing you which way to tackle them ! screech..made them all.

Lots of features including Hissing Sid,Goldie Rocks, Wood cutter,Fairy trail!,Little Red Riding wood..and finally What big teeth !

During my time there was chatting to a lad from Devon, doing simil ar things to me –sleeping in a van outside the hostel – cheeky! So, by the time I’d finished all the trails (twice,at least) I decided time was against me, and because I had such a good place… I stayed where I was and settled for the night …to a ‘hot’ prawn curry and Nans ! followed by listening to the England V Montenegro debacle on the radio – Rubbish! Good night.